#languagesofamericachallenge

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Tlingit Resources

This is a Chilkat mask and robe by Lily Hope and Ricky Tagaban which you can learn more about watching this video

Wikipedia

Omniglot

Alaska Native Languages

Yukon Native Language Centre

Tlingit Language Website

Dictionary

Grammar

Podcast

The sound of the Tlingit Language

An Introduction to Tlingit Sounds

Sealaska Heritage Institute Youtube

Memrise

Memrise 2

Learning Tlingit App

Tlingit is a Na-Dene language spoken in what is now Canada (Yukon, British Columbia) and the USA (Alaska, Washington). It used to be written with the Cyrillic Alphabet but is now using the Latin Alphabet. 

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LDC Americas (7/7): Yucatec Maya

Linguistic Diversity Challenge – the indigenous languages of the Americas

What is the language called in English and the language itself?

Maya, Maya (Yucatan), Peninsular Maya, Yucatec, Yucatec(o) Proper, Yucateco, Yucatán Maya, Yukateko; endonym:  mayaʼ tʼàan, maayaʼ tʼàan  

Where is the language spoken?

Yucatán, Quintana Roo, Campeche (Mexico); northern Belize

How many people speak the language?

There are close to 800000 native speakers.

Which language family does it belong to? What are some of its relative languages?

Yucatec Maya is, as the “surname” suggests, a member of the Mayan language family.

What writing system does the language use?

Originally, it was written with the Maya script, the modern orthography is based on the Latin alphabet.

What kind of grammatical features does the language have?

Like almost all Mayan languages, Yucatec Maya is verb-initial. Word order varies between VOS and VSO, with VOS being the most common. Many sentences may appear to be SVO, but this order is due to a topic–comment system similar to that of Japanese. One of the most widely studied areas of Yucatec is the semantics of time in the language. Yucatec, like many other languages of the world (Kalaallisut, arguably Mandarin Chinese, Guaraní and others) does not have the grammatical category of tense. Temporal information is encoded by a combination of aspect, inherent lexical aspect (aktionsart), and pragmatically governed conversational inferences. Yucatec is unusual in lacking temporal connectives such as 'before' and 'after'. Another aspect of the language is the core-argument marking strategy, which is a 'fluid S system' in the typology of Dixon (1994) where intransitive subjects are encoded like agents or patients based upon a number of semantic properties as well as the perfectivity of the event. [Wikipedia]

What does the language sound like?

The vowel system is relatively simple: i, u, e, o, a, for the consonants, see this:

(From Wikitongues. Speaker:  Hilario Chi Canul)

What do you personally find interesting about the language?

This. ♥

Sources/references:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucatec_Maya_language

https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/yuca1254

http://www.language-archives.org/language/yua

http://endangeredlanguages.com/lang/6949

http://odin.linguistlist.org/igt_urls.php?lang=yua

https://phoible.org/languages/yuca1254

https://wals.info/languoid/lect/wals_code_yct

http://www.famsi.org/reports/96072/index.html

http://www.uqroo.mx/libros/maya/diccionario.pdf

https://ailla.utexas.org/islandora/object/ailla%3A124378

https://ailla.utexas.org/islandora/object/ailla%3A124464

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Nuu-chah-nulth Resources

Wikipedia

Omniglot

Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council

First Voices

The Sound of the Nuu-chah-nulth language

Youtube Lessons

Cooking Show

MEGA drive

Nuu-chah-nulth (also known as Nootka) is a Wakashan language spoken in what is now Canada (British Columbia). It uses the Latin Alphabet but with a fair number of symbols not used in English. 

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Haida Resources

Wikipedia

Omniglot

Alaska Native Languages

Haida Language Website

Council of the Haida Nation

First Voices

Dictionary

Phrasebook

Memrise

Podcast

The Sound of the Haida Language

Sealaska Heritage Institute Youtube Channel

Susie: Haida Life

Haida is a Language Isolate spoken in what is now the USA and Canada. It uses the Latin Alphabet. 

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Hän Resources

Dislaimer:  This map only shows the Hän Hwëch’in territory in Yukon but this is the clearest and most easy to read map I could find for languages of this general are

Wikipedia

Omniglot

Alaska Native Languages

Yukon Native Language Centre

First Voices

Youtube Channel

MEGA folder

Hän is an Athabaskan language spoken in what is now Canada (Yukon) and the USA (Alaska). It is written with the Latin Alphabet. It is closely related to the Gwich’in language I featured in an earlier post. 

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Ktunaxa Resources

Wikipedia

Omniglot

First Voices

Kootenai Tribe of Idaho

Alphabet Video

PDFs

MEGA folder

Ktunaxa (also known as Kutenai) is a Language Isolate spoken in what is now Canada (British Columbia) and the USA (Idaho, Montana). It uses the Latin Alphabet. There is also a Ktunaxa Sign Language known as  ʾa·qanⱡiⱡⱡitnam

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Tutchone Resources (North and South)

Wikipedia

Omniglot

Northern Tutchone as spoken by the Na-Cho Nyak Dun

Northern Tutchone

Southern Tutchone

First Voices

Numbers in Southern Tutchone

I Speak Southern Tutchone Youtube Channel

Tutchone languages are Athabaskan languages that are usually split into Northern and Southern Tutchone, with 4 distinct dialects within each of these  groups. They are mainly spoken in the Yukon Territory in Canada